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Thursday, March 9, 2017

"My biggest, what I was looking for it was the most, was not to stay alive or to die. The fear I should have, the fear from the Germans, I should be able to live without fearing those beasts, you know, these are my biggest dream and my biggest ambition." — Romi Cohn.The Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation invites everyone to celebrate the birthday of Avrohom “Romi” Cohn, who was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia on March 10th, 1929. He was only ten years old when the Germans invaded his country in 1938. During mass deportations of Jews from Slovakia in 1942, the Nazis granted his family an “economic exception” and they were allowed to stay. However, as the war raged on, they realized that staying in Czechoslovakia had become too dangerous, and Romi was eventually smuggled over the border into Hungary. Unable to speak Hungarian, Romi knew that merely opening his mouth exposed him as an illegal refugee. He settled in a small town and enrolled at a local yeshiva, where the headmaster was sympathetic to his plight. He continued his education until 1944. When Hungary formally joined the Axis and began mass deportations of Jews, Romi returned home to Czechoslovakia, this time carrying forged Christian identification papers. Romi became an informal member of the underground and used his connections to help find housing for Jewish refugees and to supply them with false Christian papers. The identity papers he made were very realistic: a connection working at Gestapo headquarters supplied him with German seals to stamp the documents. Eventually, Romi was arrested on suspicion of carrying false documents. After a daring escape, he decided to flee to the mountains and join the partisans hiding there. To reach the mountains, Romi forged a German military travel order, sending him to the last German outpost before partisan-controlled territory. “[The Germans] all shook my hand and wished me luck. They thought I was going to go strike a blow for the Reich,” Romi remembers. By the time he joined the partisans, the Germans were already in retreat. His brigade drove them further westward — all the while capturing, interrogating, and executing SS officers.

Romi Cohn at JPEF's 2013 Tribute Dinner

The Nazis were not the only danger Romi encountered while fighting in the partisan brigade. His captain gave him a false name — Jan Kovic — in order to protect him from the antisemites in his unit. Once Romi noticed one German partisan behaving suspiciously towards him. He was afraid the man would try to kill him if given the opportunity, so he replaced his bullets with rusty ones before target practice one afternoon. The rusty bullet exploded in the man's machine gun, injuring his face. Preoccupied with his facial injury, the man stopped paying attention to Romi. When Hungary was liberated, Romi returned to Czechoslovakia. He received a number of medals for his service with the partisans, including the Silver Star of the International Partisans — an honor shared by few others. After the war, Romi emigrated to the United States and became a noted mohel (and businessman), performing over 15,000 circumcisions in his career. Were it not for the war, he would have gone to medical school to become a surgeon, he says. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Malvine. Romi's autobiography, The Youngest Partisan: A Young Boy Who Fought the Nazis, was published in 2002. Though Romi was originally against the idea, the alarming rise of Holocaust denial around the world gave him the motivation to share his story.“...we have to keep in mind today, we live in a free country and we say, ‘This could never happen here’ which is a tremendous mistake. I come from Czechoslovakia — democracy in Slovakia was even superior to American democracy — total democracy. And if this could happen in a civilized country, overnight...within six months, propaganda turned the population completely - [before] all our best friends, our est neighors, were living in harmony. All of a sudden, they became biggest enemies."

Purchase Tickets now for JPEF's 2017 Gala Celebrating the Jewish Partisans - Teaching and Preserving Their Legacies. Sunday, November 5th from 5:00 - 9:00 PM at Guastavinos in New York City. Featuring keynote speaker, Jon Avnet, Writer and Director of the miniseries Uprising, and honoring Matthew Bielski, grandson of Zus Bielski (z''l) and Elliott Felson, JPEF's Board President and son of Don Felson (z''l), the Gala will celebrate the remarkable contributions of partisans who have passed away and recognizing the third generation, who continue to inspire others by sharing their families' stories. For tickets and information click here, or contact Sheri Rosenblum at 415-563-2244 or email sheri@jewishpartisans.org.

Current JPEF Highlights

We are collaborating with Facing History and Ourselves to bring the Jewish partisans to over 100,000 educators in their network. Facing History has integrated many of JPEF's educational materials into their online resource offerings and professional development trainings. A special section of their website is devoted to the study of the Jewish partisans, and features JPEF partisans and active links to JPEF's site.

54 of JPEF's Jewish partisans are now featured in the Personal Stories section of theUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Holocaust Encyclopedia. Their vital stories are now being shared with over a million annual visitors to USHMM's website.

Watch for JPEF at the 97th Annual Conference of the National Council for the Social Studies. November 17-19 in San Francisco.

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ASK A PARTISAN

Q: Hello my name is Joshua i would like to know what rifle or weapon that was carried by yall im doing a realistic fiction book and would like to know what weapon was carried on average.–Age 14

A: Starting in December of 1942 I carried two weapons - a rifle and a revolver, both of which were locally available and likely Polish made. Later on, In July of 1943, we received a shipment of Arms from the Red Army via parachute drop. From then on, I began carrying a 'Pe-Pe-Sha' soviet machine gun, a German Luger and 2 hand grenades.

Thank you for the inquiry,

–Frank Blaichman

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Q: What was the social hierarchy like in these partisan groups–Age 15

A: In Russian partisan brigades, different units may have had different protocols, especially the all-Jewish Bielski Otriad. In the Stalinskaya Brigade that I was a part of, many of the partisans had been commanding officers in the Russian Army or were escaped POWs. They generally assumed the positions that they held in the Russian Army. Each brigade had a commanding officer who would appoint battalion heads. All officers were appointed, but you could rise through to other positions like being a scout by volunteering. There was antisemitism in my unit and they treated the Jews a bit differently. Because I was young and Jewish, I had to prove myself.

–Allen Small

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